Except for those who are not politically discerning enough, it is crystal clear to those who can smell the political tea leaves in Ekiti State that the wife of the incumbent governor, Erelu Bisi Fayemi, wants someone from Ekiti Central Senatorial District, to succeed Governor Kayode Fayemi against natural justice, equity and inclusiveness.
While the governor reserves the privilege to support a candidate of his choice as he is entitled to such prerogative being the leader of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in the state as it relates to the gubernatorial election in 2022, it is morally incumbent on some of us commentators and also interested partisans to also inform him that in exercising this prerogative of his, he should not fail to learn from the experience of some who have trod the self-destructive path he wants to follow now in the past. Those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it, as the saying goes.
For crying out loud, cumulatively, Ekiti Central, Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s preferred destination in the choice of who succeeds Governor Kayode Fayemi come 2022, has done a total of twelve years out of the possible twenty-one years since 1999 when democracy returned to the country, thus, making the zone, to the exclusion of others, the highest holder of the highest executive position in the state.
The Governor’s zone, Ekiti North, by the time he finishes his tenure in 2022, would have put in eleven years of holding the gubernatorial reins of power, taking into cognizance the three years or so former Governor Segun Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) held sway as the state’s chief helmsman.
Going by the foregoing calculations, Ekiti North and Central would almost be at par by 2022 in terms of gubernatorial representation. The interpretation of this is that Ekiti South, the third of the tripod stand upon which the state is politically anchored, has never produced a governor of the state since 1999! And I ask: where is the justice in this?
Ordinarily, without any prompting, the zone to produce the next governor of the state should be Ekiti South having been denied from doing so for over two decades thereby treating the people of the zone as political lepers in the same state forebears fought hard to create, nurture and sustain. Yet, no zone is more Ekiti than the other.
But since the governor’s wife is bent on jettisoning fairness and inclusiveness for the propagation of her selfish and parochial political hegemony, it won’t be out of place to remind her that the arrogant insistence of former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, to have a successor from Ondo Central, the same zone as the outgoing governor, was what denied the Peoples Democratic Party from retaining the governorship seat in the state in 2016. Erelu Bisi Fayemi may just be digging the political grave of the APC in the state if she continues to project someone from Ekiti Central to succeed her husband.
From the benefit of hindsight, had Dr Mimiko chosen his successor from either Ondo North or South, chances were sky-high that Rotimi Akeredolu, then-candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) might not have won the election. Despite all appeals and sound reasoning offered by seasoned analysts and political bookmakers to Mimiko to abandon his desire to install a successor from Ondo Central, he remained unmoved and thus his political fortunes seriously got eroded following the resounding loss the PDP suffered in the election.
While Mimiko plotted and schemed thinking he could use his power of incumbency and famed(now infamous) political skills to circumvent natural justice and fairness which was what power shift to either the north or south would have guaranteed, the Ondo electorate – including his party men and women – simply waited for him at the polls to activate their revolt against his choice. The rest, as they say, is now history.
Perhaps if the PDP had won the 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Dr Mimiko might not have become a politically migratory bird that he is now looking for where to pitch his tent. After the displacement of the party from power and the internal wranglings in the party occasioned by his overbearing attitude, he left for the Zenith Labour Party where he contested the 2019 Ondo Central Senatorial Seat but came a distant third. He was even defeated in his federal constituency. Such is the magnitude of the depreciation in political capital the strategic mistake he made in 2016 has cost him. He is now back to the PDP again and the vicious cycle continues for the one famous and politically adroit Iroko.
Of course, the political variables in Ondo State politics are not entirely the same as that of Ekiti State, it needs to be stated, however, that the outcome of the 2022 Ekiti election may not be different from the 2016 Ondo election because it will be a case of the ever fair-minded and resilient Ekiti electorate revolting against zonal supremacy and domination, divide and rule politics triggered by prebendal politicking and regime protection.
One more thing: some observers may be wondering why Professor Oladapo Eleka, candidate of the PDP in the 2018 gubernatorial election, who is from Ekiti South, did not win the election despite being supported by Fayose, the then outgoing governor who was the generalissimo of the PDP.
The truth of the matter was that Fayose acted well by doing what was fair by zoning the ticket of the party to Ekiti South. And he was rightly commended for his sense of fairness and equity in that regard. However, in picking his choice and mobilising support for him, he alienated/sidelined some powerful stakeholders of the party who did not show enough commitment to the struggle hence their lukewarm interest in the election. In addition, the APC succeeded in pulling to its fold some top shots of the PDP in the days leading to the election which undoubtedly cost the PDP an arm and a leg in the election. Even at that, there were still voters who believed in the justness of the choice of Professor Eleka being from Ekiti South and thus defied all odds and intimidation on the day of the election to cast their ballots for him long even after their leaders had abandoned them and jumped ship.
It is pertinent to state at this juncture that Ekiti south has competent men and women, who will deliver excellently if given the chance to govern the state at the highest level. Zoning does not inhibit competence just as competence is no exclusive preserve of one zone. Rather, zoning political power amongst blocs encourages diversity, promotes inclusiveness and stability which are in turn needed for economic development to take place.
Ogunsina sent this piece from Emure-Ekiti, Ekiti State
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